Republican Ideas

I’ve seen David Frum a couple of times and have decided to subscribe to his page newmajority.com.

No, I am not a Republican but I think that a legitimate opposition party is a great idea and good for the country. I checked out his page and yeah, I disagree with many of the ideas but the stuff there is issue driven; no “Obama is Hitler” stuff, etc.

So I’ll check them out just to see what smart conservatives think.

George Stephanopoulos: David Frum, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, George Will

Roundtable: Obama Approval Ratings

Shared via AddThis

This takes 21 minutes but is pretty good. Most of this is about the health care debate; some is about the economy and a little bit is about Afghanistan.

23 August 09 (am)

Workout notes Same 20 mile course as last week, though I added one goose loop lap (about .36 miles) and it was much cooler. 2:15 at the mile 10 turn off but finished in 4:38 (5 minutes faster); it was the coolness that made this go better. Still, I am always about 10-15 minutes slower the day after a hard 5K race (even a running one).

I got to see much of the marathon training group (runners) and another group; there were smiles and waves all around.

Injury I had a bit of trouble with the behind the knee area of my right leg (as usual); it was aggravated by poor posture. I need to work on my core strength.

Science In some species, brainy males get more females. Score one for the nerds!

Politics
The Republican field for 2012 is shaping up!

Sean Hannity is open to the call from his deity!

So is Michelle Bachmann!

Of course there is Sarah Palin.

But now we can look to Livonia, Michigan (near Detroit) and find city council candidate Glenn Moon:

Is he the perfect Republican or what?

Sam Harris on Bill Maher

More on Francis Collins:

The new director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) laid out his priorities today, spending his 1st day on the job speaking to his staff and reporters. Physician-geneticist Francis Collins said he plans to emphasize five “themes,” including health care reform and translating research into medicine. Collins also sought to allay perhaps the biggest concerns about his nomination last month by President Barack Obama, saying that he will protect investigator-initiated science and that his religious interests will not influence how he runs the agency.

Collins, who in 2008 stepped down after 15 years as director of NIH’s genome institute, spoke publicly about his ideas for the first time since his name surfaced as the leading candidate to head the agency. In a town hall meeting with NIH staff, he said he now has an “exciting, daunting, and perhaps the most amazing job that anybody could ever ask for.” He assured his audience that “the mainstay” will be the individual investigator; anybody who thinks otherwise “need look no further” than the genome institute’s intramural program, where research is “driven by ideas” and where he will keep his lab.

At the same time, large biology projects are one of Collins’s five priorities. He will promote high-throughput technologies in areas that are “poised for this kind of approach,” such as gene transcription and autism studies. He expects to emphasize translational research, such as a new NIH program to develop drugs for rare diseases. The three other themes are health care reform, including research comparing treatments, which he said NIH “should embrace”; global health; and “empower[ing] the biomedical research community,” which he said includes sustained funding, encouraging young investigators, and funding innovative research.

Speaking of “beyond belief”: there are a ton of videos here. That should keep me entertained for a while.